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Irate Gamer controversy
The Irate Gamer controversy was one of the first YouTube controversies to ever come to light (if not the first), having started on September 11, 2007. While it involved many other YouTube reviewers, the controversy chiefly centered on lifted quotes and mannerisms from the Angry Video Game Nerd. The apex of the controversy coincided with the rise in the Irate Gamer's popularity on YouTube, which occurred late in 2007 and lasted until around 2010. During this time, many ranters riffed on the Irate Gamer, including people like Silent Rob and TheArchfiend. While there were very few people making videos about the controversy in 2010, many still continued to accuse the Irate Gamer of many things, primarily for being a rip-off of the Angry Video Game Nerd, and some still share this hatred today. The controversy finally reached its official closure on October 2, 2014, upon Chris Bores releasing a 39-minute video sharing his perspective on the whole controversy. Background: April 6, 2006–September 10, 2007 James Rolfe, as JamesNintendoNerd (now called Cinemassacre), joined YouTube on April 6, 2006As seen on the "About" section of his YouTube channel., and uploaded a satirical review of the NES game Castlevania II: Simon's Quest two days later. It was originally posted to his website on May 7, 2004Rolfe, James D. "AVGN: Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest." Cinemassacre Productions RSS. James Rolfe and Mike Matei, 7 May 2004. Web. 28 Sept. 2016. <http://cinemassacre.com/2004/05/07/castlevania-2-simons-quest/> . As he continued to post more episodes of what was then called the Angry Nintendo Nerd (later changed to the Angry Video Game Nerd, both to prevent a lawsuit from Nintendo and to reflect his change in content), the show became the staple of his YouTube channel. He was the first to popularize angry reviews, which eventually led to many others trying to reach the same success as him. This also included Chris Bores, who would form the character of the Irate Gamer the next year. Upon gaining inspiration from James Rolfe and other reviewers, Chris Bores decided to try his hand at creating an angry review of a game. For the first few, he lifted quotes from his inspirations, later stating, "I didn't know what to do; it was my very first review." On April 28, 2007, he posted a review of the NES game Back to the Future, only showing it to his friends so they could laugh with him; he didn't take anything seriously. For the next few months, he posted a few more videos in the same light, tackling other NES and SNES games and discussing certain video game controversies and sharing them with his friends. During this time, he also continued to avidly watch his inspirations' content. During the summer of 2007, there was a contest held on GameTrailers.com, which featured the Angry Video Game Nerd's content as well as Cinemassacre.com, that was called "Out-Nerd the Nerd." It was a contest to see who could be the best angry reviewer to mimic the style of the Angry Video Game Nerd. Feeling a sense of inspiration, Bores began making many reviews at a rapid pace, borrowing many of the Nerd's tropes, including his demeanor and even some of his quotes. However, the winner ended up being someone known as the Happy Video Game Nerd, much to Bores' disbelief. However, he continued to make reviews as the Irate Gamer, noting that his videos garnered several fans who wanted to see his content. The Controversy Begins: September 11, 2007 On September 11, 2007, the Irate Gamer's video discussing the game Super Mario 2 became featured on YouTube, which caused him to garner a huge mass of views and subscribers overnight. However, in turn, this led to some scrutiny by other reviewers on YouTube, who recognized that Bores directly referenced their content. A particularly noteworthy instance came when Silent Rob called out Bores for being a rip-off, which was a point also echoed by TheArchfiend. With this came a massive outpouring of hate comments on each of the Irate Gamer videos. A similar thing happened when the Irate Gamer's M.U.S.C.L.E. review got featured. Chris Bores eventually reached out to James Rolfe, hoping to clarify the whole issue. "Hello James, I'm not sure if you know me but my name is Chris Bores, I do the Irate Gamer videos on youtube. I feel compelled to finally write you since my videos are starting to get popular on youtube and tons of people are comparing my quality of work to yours. I don't know if you'll end up reading this because you probably get tons of emails in a day and I know mine would be swimming in the sea of them, but I wanted to write you anyway. Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know I've been a fan of your videos ever since I saw your Ninja Turtles game review around last year. And I gotta say, it was very inspiring to me. In fact, I hardly got any sleep that night because I had hundreds of new idea's flowing through my mind of what I could do with this intriguing thing you started. But due to my career, I had to tuck them away for a few months until I could get some spare time to record them. Now I'm not sure if you've ever seen any of my reviews or ever heard of me, or heck, even like me for that matter, but I just wanted to take some time out of my busy schedule and let you know I respect your work and I do try my hardest to not copy your material. Although in my earlier reviews, I will admit, that I accidentally used some of your well known made up words in my review and I only found this out because people were telling me I did. I felt really bad about it and still do because the last thing I want to do is steal your catch phrases. Since then, I made a point to watch all your reviews again and to make sure not to make that same blunder again. So if I ended up causing any negative feelings because of it, my apologies. But hey, I just wanted to email you and let you know I respect your work and clear the air of any hard feelings if there are any, because I'm just doing this stuff for fun and I know you are too. So thanks for everything, and I should mention, since day one I thought it would be neat to do a duel sic review with you, but I'm still trying to figure out how getting both worlds to collide would work. Hmm Oh well, maybe one day. Thanks again my friend, and I'm glad to see you doing so well!" ~ Chris Bores, 2009 Bores received a reply, which stated that while Rolfe didn't mind that Bores emulated the Angry Video Game Nerd, he wanted Bores to openly admit to copying him in a video. When Bores didn't reply back soon enough, the email was posted online for all to see, providing fans of the Angry Video Game Nerd with ammo to fire at the Irate Gamer. It's currently unknown if it was either Mike Matei or James Rolfe who posted the email. However, what's certain is that Rolfe showed no opposition to the email being posted after the fact. In spite of all the mass flaming, Bores continued to make content, though he made it a point to make and maintain a vow of silence about anything related to the Angry Video Game Nerd; Bores felt that the public posting of the email was a disservice and done out of spite, which caused him to lose all respect for Rolfe and the Angry Video Game Nerd. This was widely interpreted as cowardice and/or ignorance, even by Rolfe himself; when asked at a convention about his opinion on the Irate Gamer, Rolfe essentially stated that, since Bores wouldn't acknowledge him, he didn't feel a need to acknowledge him either. From this point onwards, the bickering between the two was mostly relegated to their respective fan bases attacking each other, as well as rants on the Irate Gamer made by various ranters. These rants helped the ranting community rise to popularity during this time. This backlash continues today, albeit tenuously. The Tables Turn: October 16, 2011–October 2, 2014 Between October 16, 2011, and October 2, 2014, major events occurred that damaged the reputation of James Rolfe and the Angry Video Game Nerd. This is where the tables turn. ''AVGN: The Movie'' fundraiser and release (2011–2012, 2014) On October 16, 2011, James Rolfe published a video that discussed crowdfunding Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, which had been in development since 2008.James Rolfe's video explaining the IndieGoGo campaign The campaign was started up by a man named Sean Keegan.AVGN Movie IndieGoGo campaign Said movie would involve Rolfe as the Angry Video Game Nerd reviewing E.T. for the Atari 2600, along with additional hijinks. Certain donated amounts would warrant certain perks, including scripts of the movie, autographed photos, behind the scenes footage, and end-credits mentions. His intent was to release the movie in theaters. Some ranters and commentators were unsure how to feel about this. Some, like the Archfiend, felt that the fundraiser was unnecessary, since the Cinemassacre channel had been approved for YouTube monetization years before then, merchandise of the Angry Video Game Nerd was available and selling well, and props from the show were regularly given away on online auctions. This event marked the turning point of Rolfe's public reception. When the campaign closed on February 2, 2012, it raised a total of $325,327 from 6,788 backers. Here is a comprehensive breakdown of the perks: *$10: Special Message from The Nerd—1,375 claimed backers ($13,750 generated) *$30: Autographed Photo—2,686 claimed backers ($80,580 generated) *$50: A copy of the film's script!—912 claimed ($45,600 generated) *$100: Behind The Scenes video—166 claimed ($16,600 generated) *$200: Your Name in the end Credits!—631 claimed ($126,200 generated) *Overall: 5,770 claimed perks ($282,730 generated) From this, you can see that roughly 87% of the funds raised came from perks. When Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie was released on April 21, 2014, public reception was mixed to negative. Many complained that the plot was too convoluted and esoteric, the review didn't amount to much, and some felt that the movie itself was overall unnecessary. Some felt that the movie exemplified Rolfe's treatment of the Angry Video Game Nerd as a serious franchise, as opposed to the early reviews of the mid-2000s which they felt were clearly made for fun.Reviews of the AVGN movie on IMDB 'Cheetahmen II scandal (2012)' From August 6, 2012 to September 6, 2012, a Kickstarter campaign was set up by a man named Greg Pabich to fund a remake/re-release of Cheetahmen II for the NES.Cheetahmen II Kickstarter campaign page Perks for donations ranged from $1 to $10,000, even though only 3 people pledged for a $1,000 perk and no one donated for the $5,000+ perks. This was a campaign that James Rolfe himself was involved in, and he was able to get his own fan base to support it. Almost immediately, many ranters came out of the woodworks denouncing the campaign as a scam. This, coupled with the IndieGoGo campaign that ended earlier that year, led to more criticism being thrown Rolfe's way. Mike Matei was the one responsible for censoring negative comments towards the campaign, which indicated that they themselves supported it. In response to the criticism, Rolfe himself posted on his website: "On Cinemassacre, we usually run advertisements for things like Burger King or something like that, so when I was asked to promote a game that I reviewed as AVGN, it sounded like a cool idea. It was something I thought my audience would like. Admittedly, I didn’t know much else about the project other than someone was re-releasing Cheetahmen 2. Just someone releasing a game. How could that go wrong? I got the script and filmed my part for the promo, while I had my head buried deep in the Schwarzenegger Games episode which I was working on at the time. Over the past week, there’s been a lot of fuss over the Cheetahmen thing, so I looked at the Kickstarter page for the very first time. I admit, I didn’t understand the costs at first and I should have researched it beforehand, but when it was explained to me, it made more sense. Honestly, I’ve paid $60 for the Nintendo World Champion reproduction cart that you saw in the NWC episode and that game didn’t come with a box or comic book. But I don’t know a thing about game production. My suggestion is not to listen to internet rumors and jump to conclusions. Make your own judgement and only donate if you want a Cheetahmen game. The choice is yours. I’m truly sorry about any inconvenience." ~ James Rolfe, 12 Aug 2012Rolfe, James D. "Cheetahmen 2 Update." Cinemassacre Productions RSS. James Rolfe and Mike Matei, 12 Aug. 2012. Web. 30 Sept. 2017. <http://cinemassacre.com/2012/08/12/cheetahmen-2-update/> The extent of the criticism reached so far that even Chris Bores made a tongue-in-cheek parody of the whole situation. Surprisingly, Bores's parody was somewhat well received. Ultimately, the whole fundraiser turned out to be a massive scam; barely anything was fixed from the original version, and some backers were unable to even play the game. It is unknown if any of the backers have received their perks. The fundraiser garnered $94,270 from 1,122 backers. 'Chris Bores opens up (2014)' On October 2, 2014, in response to the Archfiend's video talking about how he felt continued hatred of the Irate Gamer was pathetic, Bores published a video discussing the Irate Gamer controversy from his own perspective.Chris Bores's video explaining his perspective on the controversy Here, he revealed the hypocrisies involving everything that was going on and his own personal history with Rolfe. In one part, he revealed how Rolfe would often steal Bores's review ideas before he could get to them; Bores would make an announcement about reviewing a game or a system, and then suddenly Rolfe would release a video reviewing said game or system. This happened to the point where Bores had to stop posting these announcements. Bores also pointed out how Rolfe never made let's play videos until PewDiePie became popular, yet nobody ever called him out on it. Meanwhile, whenever Bores would do something Rolfe had done, he was practically crucified for it. At the end of the video, Bores stated that the viewer had the choice whether or not to believe anything he said, since he knew that he wouldn't be able to convince everyone that his story was true. Upon this video's release, public reaction to it was generally positive. It gave new insight into a drama that unfolded 4 to 7 years prior that hadn't been considered before. This, combined with the online fundraising campaigns and the mixed reception of Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, led to Bores gaining massive respect, whereas Rolfe lost massive respect. Aftermath As of 2017, nothing new has really happened concerning the Irate Gamer and the Angry Video Game Nerd. The whole situation died out by the end of 2014. Chris Bores stopped producing episodes of the Irate Gamer in 2016 and has branched off into making other videos (his channel is now called CB Network instead of Irate Gamer), while James Rolfe continues to produce episodes of the Angry Video Game Nerd. This whole event serves as a cautionary tale about who to place one's trust into, as well as the consequences of not being able to see past blind passion and hatred. References Category:Controversies Category:2000s Category:2010s